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Govt nets record Rs 22,557 crore in CIL divestment; LIC top buyer

Last Updated 30 January 2015, 21:03 IST
In the biggest-ever disinvestment, the 10 per cent stake sale in Coal India (CIL) on Friday fetched the government Rs 22,557.3 crore in a bumper sale where state-run LIC alone picked up nearly one-third of the public offer.

The issue received bids for 67.52 crore shares of the value of Rs 24,210 crore, over-subscribing the offer 1.07 times.

This is the biggest share sale by any private or public sector company in India and exceeds the previous record of over Rs 15,000 crore made by CIL itself in 2010.The huge demand for CIL shares came on a day of high market turbulence with the benchmark Sensex falling by nearly 500 points and the total investors wealth slipping by over Rs 1.5 lakh crore.

According to Kejriwal Research founder Arun Kejriwal, authorities concerned need to relook at the whole process.

“Around 2 lakh people have applied for the issue and close to Rs 2,000 crore was garnered in the issue through retail investors which I think is really good,” Kejriwal told Deccan Herald. However, one must remember that a retail investor needs to submit 100 per cent of the amount and despite that there was so much participation.

I think all the concerned people including the government, merchant bankers, Sebi and others should have a relook at how the whole process is done. They should look at treating OFS as a secondary market transaction so that retail investors can participate more, Kejriwal added.

Gaurang Shah of Geojit BNP Paribas believes that bad experiences from the past have come to haunt retail investors due to which their participation was less.

“This is the first big offer from the government. In the past, PSU offers have bombed big time due to which retail investors were cautious in the Coal India OFS,” Gaurang Shah told Deccan Herald.

“Retail investors do look at all the aspects including the market price and the attractiveness of issue.

“Maybe the outlook for the stock was not so attractive due to which retail investors avoided it,” Shah added.

The successful disinvestment in Coal India, where the government would now hold about 80 per cent stake, will help it close the gap on its target of Rs 43,425 crore for the current fiscal, which ends on March 31, 2014.

It will also help the government shore up finances to meet fiscal deficit challenges.

Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal said the success of the share sale reflects the investors’ confidence in the government’s ability to usher in reforms and improvement in the economy.


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(Published 30 January 2015, 15:36 IST)

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